This Rabbit's still looking for faster time

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Wally Rabbitskin grew up playing ice hockey in Northern Quebec but now he's a marathon runner who plays only the occasional game on blades.

"I've got a bit of a shin injury," says Rabbitskin before quietly acknowledging that he's still logging 90 to 100 kilometres a week in training.

That the 33-year-old Cree has taken to running up to 150 kilometres a week might be traced to the father he never met. From what his mother tells him, Matthew Rabbitskin was a proud provider who didn't use modern machinery for transportation.

"He walked almost every day when he was hunting," says Rabbitskin, whose father died in a drowning accident.

"I'm sort of pleased, but not pleased yet," says the 5 foot 6, 133 pounder runner, of his own performance. His best marathon time is two hours 27 minutes. That came with a victory in the summer-warm 1992 Voyageur marathon in Massey, Ont. but his best race may have been a fifth-place effort in Hamilton's 1993 Around The Bay 30-kilometre race.

He'd like to eventually run close to 2:20 and thus rank among Canada's top dozen or so marathoners, and his Around The Bay time of 1:44 suggests the goal is reachable with improved training.

While he has yet to run a spring marathon under 2:30, it's probably because his training suffers during the Crees' annual three-week goose hunt in the spring.

"Maybe my time hasn't come down because I haven't done too much speed work and all that," is another suggestion from Rabbitskin, who lives on the Cree reserve at Mistissini Lake, just south of James Bay, with his wife Kitty and children Pauline, 11, Stephane, 8, and Bryan, 3. "Usually I concentrate on doing longer runs."

His longest runs take two-and-a-half to three hours, but life isn't all running. Rabbitskin also works for the Quebec Cree Health Board as regional co-ordinator for its Alcohol and Drug Abuse program. He assumed the position a year ago after previously teaching physical education part-time at an elementary school.

Rabbitskin and his marathon-running sister, Margaret 37, also spend one night a week co-ordinating the Mewatschewin (Good Health) Running Club. With 64 participants last summer, who ranged in age from five to 40, running 1-10 kilometres, Rabbitskin sees two major goals for the club: encouragement of fitness and a potential activity for those on alcohol or drug rehab.

As a youngster, hockey was his sporting love, but Rabbitskin stopped playing when the game stopped being fun.

"At first I had a good time. I was getting good and scoring goals and skating and working hard and meeting other people," remembers Rabbitskin, who as an adolescent travelled to Europe to play. But then he took a closer look at the game.

"People were getting hurt for no good reasons. I know people don't hurt others because they like to," explains. "It's because they get mad or they're not in shape to play."

Marathon debut

Rabbitskin only took up marathon running seriously at age 28, and a year later broke three hours in his racing debut - the 1989 Montreal marathon. It looked like he'd run a lot faster, occupying 19th place until he hit the famous "wall" at 34 kilometres and faded.

However, the time qualified him for the next year's Boston marathon where he

ran 2:47. And his time kept dropping, to 2:36 at the 1991 Boston and 2:33 at the 1991 National Capital.

"I started wearing a mask in the cold weather and people would look at me strange. I used to see them laugh," recalls Rabbitskin. "but now now. I tell them what I'm doing and it's because of the interviews I've done."

Rabbit, as he's sometimes called, plans to keep on running.

"Running has been really good to me over the last few years. It has helped me change my whole attitude toward people and myself and my family," he said, providing the example that he has become more patient with his children.

"It has allowed me to appreciate what I have and given me more confidence in myself. I used to think running was only for physical fitnes, but now that I've been doing it for six years I believe it helps me religiously and spiritually."